Iconic "Texas" Restaurants Between South Padre Island and Austin

We'll be in Texas next week traveling between South Padre Island and Austin. I've got barbecue places covered, but am looking for other "Texan" places in the area surrounded by SPI/Corpus Christi/San Antonio/Austin, roughly. Looking for:

- "Interesting" local steak places- Great chicken-fried steak- TexMex or Mexican- Anything else we're not going to find in Minnesota

Basically looking for those "My parents used to drive the whole family all the way over to _______ every weekend just to eat at _______" kind of places.